Decarbonize

Design

Anthropogenic carbon emissions have had already dramatic impacts on the earth’s climate, and their acceleration threatens the planet’s atmosphere and the ecological systems that depend on it.In an effort to mitigate impending crisis, forward thinking institutions, governments, and municipalities have begun to set ambitious goals for renewable energy generation, efficient building systems, and the elimination of fossil fuels from their investment portfolios, transportation networks, and material supply chains. Normative standards for building performance and life-cycle assessment tools for building designers are beginning to proliferate.

In this emerging context, it is essential that architects and engineers understand the accumulation and emission of carbon over the full life cycle of the buildings they design. The over-reliance on information outsourcing, requiring either technical consultation or the use of computational assessment tools tend to obscure underlying assumptions and encumber design decision-making, especially in early stages of the design process when critical decisions affecting a building’s long term impacts may be irreversible. Only by understanding the key parameters that may shape the carbon footprint of any given building can a designer readily develop feasible means to produce low-carbon outcomes in the building processes they set in motion.